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NYC’s June 25 primary includes Assembly battles in 4 boroughs

By

Jon Campbell

Published Jun 21, 2024

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A sign reads "EARLY VOTING SITE HERE / CENTRO DE VOTACIÓN TEMPRANA AQUÍ" outside the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York

 

Photo by Josefa Velásquez

By

Jon Campbell

Published Jun 21, 2024

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Some of the New York state Assembly’s longest-serving members are retiring at the end of the year, marking a loss of institutional knowledge and kicking off a free-for-all in their New York City-based districts.

Voters will head to the polls on Tuesday to decide more than a dozen state legislative primary races, with early voting already underway. The winners will go on to November's general elections, but many districts are in Democratic strongholds where the primaries are the crucial races.

Some Democrats in four of the five boroughs — Staten Island is out of luck — will have state Assembly primaries to decide, including high-profile races to replace long-standing, retiring members.

That includes the Brooklyn district held by Helene Weinstein, who was first elected in 1980 and is the Assembly’s longest-tenured member. It also includes the districts of Assemblymember Jeff Aubry of Queens, elected in 1992, and Assemblymember Daniel O’Donnell of Manhattan, elected in 2002.

But there are also upstart challengers looking to unseat Democratic incumbents — often by running to their left. And for Republicans, there’s just one state legislative primary in Queens.

Replacing the longtime lawmakers

The race to replace Aubry — whose district stretches from East Elmhurst to Rego Park and includes LaGuardia Airport and Citi Field — pits Democratic district leader Larinda Hooks against Hiram Monserrate, the former state senator and city councilmember turned perennial candidate.

Hooks, who has Aubry’s backing, is a longtime community organizer who used to be president of the East Elmhurst-Corona Civic Association. Her opponent has spent years trying to re-enter elected office after he was expelled from the state Senate in 2010, when he was convicted of a misdemeanor for assaulting his girlfriend. Later, Monserrate spent nearly two years in prison after pleading guilty to mail fraud connected to his time in the City Council.

City Councilmember Kalman Yeger and Adam Dweck, a first-time candidate who previously worked in politics and is now a billing manager at a law firm, are running to replace Weinstein, whose district includes parts of Sheepshead Bay, Midwood, East Flatbush and Flatlands.

In Morningside Heights and the Upper West Side, five candidates are on the ballot to succeed O’Donnell. That includes Eli Northrup, a public defender who has the backing of the left-leaning Working Families Party, and Micah Lasher, a longtime governmental and political aide who most recently served as Gov. Kathy Hochul’s policy director.

Also on the ballot for the O’Donnell seat: Carmen Quinones, who leads the Frederick Douglass Houses’ tenant group; Melissa Rosenberg, a vice president at major lobbying firm Kasirer, and Jack Kellner, a physician who used to work for the city health department.

Meanwhile, four Democrats are looking to replace Harlem’s Inez Dickens, who is retiring after she was first elected to the Assembly in 2016: Maria Ordonez, Jordan J.G. Wright, Shana Harmongoff and Craig Schley.

Wright is the son of former Assemblymember and current Manhattan Democratic Party boss Keith Wright and managed City Councilmember Yusef Salaam’s campaign. Harmongoff was an aide to ex-Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin during his time as a state senator. Schley is an affordable housing activist and former congressional candidate. And Ordonez is a tenants' rights and environmental justice activist and state Democratic Committee member.

Longtime incumbents with challengers

One of the more fiery races is in the East Bronx, where longtime incumbent Democratic Assemblymember Michael Benedetto is facing a challenge from the left by Jonathan Soto, a former staffer for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Benedetto, the chair of the Assembly Education Committee and a former schoolteacher, has been in the chamber since 2005. Soto identifies as a democratic socialist and has the endorsement of his former boss. The two squared off in a three-way primary race in 2022, which Benedetto easily won.

In Queens, Assemblymember Ron Kim of Queens, first elected in 2012, is running against challengers Dao Yin and Yi Andy Chen in a district that includes parts of Whitestone, Flushing, College Point and Murray Hill.

Kim, a left-leaning assemblymember known for criticizing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo during the COVID-19 pandemic, is facing a tight race with both challengers bringing in substantial campaign cash boosted by the state’s public matching funds; Yin has been accused of reporting fake donations for the match.

In Upper Manhattan, Assemblymember Al Taylor is squaring off against Julien Segura, a political consultant and campaign organizer who lists past work for candidates including now-Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Andrew Yang.

Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon of Brooklyn, who was first elected in 2014, is facing a Democratic challenge from Scott Budow, an attorney. The district stretches from Dumbo to Carroll Gardens, and its eastern portion includes part of Prospect Heights.

Other incumbents facing challengers

Assemblymember Juan Ardila, a Queens Democrat who was first elected in 2022 and represents a district that includes parts of Sunnyside, Long Island City and Maspeth, tops the list of more recently elected incumbents who face challengers.

Shortly after Ardila took office, two women accused him of making unwanted sexual advances on them at a party at Fordham University in 2015. He withstood calls for his resignation, but now faces a primary challenge from Claire Valdez, a democratic socialist who has the backing of progressives who supported Ardila two years ago, and Johanna Carmona, an attorney and City Council staffer.

Other incumbent state lawmakers from New York City facing a Democratic intraparty challenge:

The lone Assembly Republican primary in NYC

The only Republican primary race for an Assembly district in New York City is in a Queens district that includes all or part of Flushing, Queensboro Hill, Hillcrest, Fresh Meadows, Oakland Gardens, Bayside and Douglaston.

Kenneth Paek and Kenneth Chiu are squaring off for the right to face Democratic incumbent Nily Rozic in the November election.

Paek is a retired member of the NYPD. Chiu previously ran in a different Assembly district in 2022 as a Democrat.

The lone state Senate primary in NYC

There’s only one state Senate primary in New York City, and it belongs to first-term Sen. Kristen Gonzalez of Brooklyn.

Gonzalez, a democratic socialist, is facing a challenge from the right from Gus Lambropoulos for the district that stretches from Queens to Brooklyn, including parts of Astoria, Long Island City, Greenpoint and Williamsburg.

Tagged

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Jon Campbell

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Jon Campbell covers the New York State Capitol for WNYC and Gothamist. Prior to that, he covered the Capitol for more than a decade for the USA TODAY Network. He has twice earned the Walter T. Brown Memorial Award, an honor given annually by the Legislative Correspondents Association alumni for outstanding state government coverage. Jon grew up in the Buffalo area and graduated from the University at Albany. Got a tip? Email Jon at [email protected] or Signal at JonCampbellNY.90.

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